Residents of the Pacific Palisades flocked home on Saturday after President Donald Trump’s visit the day before, with many gaining access to their property for the first time since the Palisades Fire more than two weeks ago.

Trump met with residents and local officials on Friday, holding a roundtable discussion at the local fire station in which he allowed those affected by the fires to raise their concerns for the first time.

President Donald Trumpand first lady Melania Trump listen as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaks during a briefing after a tour of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood affected by recent wildfires in Los Angeles, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

(This author participated, and urged the president to appoint a Special Master, as the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund did, to make sure that California actually spends the money on rebuilding fire-damaged areas, rather than on every liberal pet policy.)

During the meeting, local residents raised concerns that they had been told it would take 18 months to clear their lots of debris, and that local permitting processes would stop them from rebuilding.

In addition, most of the affected residents had been prohibited from even visiting the ruins of their homes. Trump took the residents’ side against the city, and when Mayor Karen Bass pushed back, he insisted that they be able to access their property immediately.

Bass said they could go within a week. “A week is a long time,” President Trump said, saying residents should be able to go immediately.

The next day, residents rushed to the assembly point in nearby Santa Monica Parking Lot #3, where police escorts had been taking caravans of residents to the Highlands, one of the areas of the Pacific Palisades that had not been as badly affected as the rest of the town.

They insisted on being taken to other neighborhoods — Marquez Knolls, the “Alphabet Streets,” the Bluffs, and others — with many insisting that President Trump had promised them access.

While some were turned away, some persisted and were able to visit their lots — at least for a short period of time.

“I personally needed to go back,” one resident told Breitbart News. “We weren’t here when it [the fire] happened, and luckily my parents listened to us and did evacuate. … If we could get in today and not have my parents sit for hours to get in — so that worked.”

Some residents reported continued denials by National Guard soldiers and police. One posted on Instagram: “They didn’t let us in but they also said they wouldn’t arrest us if we went around them. So we went.”

One who was able to go into a restricted area reported dismay at seeing “half eaten food and empty water bottles” left behind by service workers who are repairing services and removing hazards in preparation for residents to return.

A few confirmed that nothing was left of their homes but dust and rubble. But some were able to salvage a few surviving mementos — including ceramic Christmas ornaments — of their lives in the neighborhood.

“I went up because a friend in the Alphabet Streets found some things that were significant to her and salvageable and that just gave me hope to see if there was anything at ours and I wanted to get in before the rain made it worse,” one said.

Many expressed a commitment to rebuild, and hope that President Trump’s pressure on Los Angeles and California will allow them to do so.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.